Rogers: Jaramillo's fate was sealed long ago

Rudy Jaramillo never showed it, and maybe he didn’t even know it. But as the most highly positioned holdover from the Jim Hendry regime, he’s been a dead man walking for some time now.

When a big-league team is going bad and you can’t fire the manager, you fire one of the coaches. Jaramillo was positioned to be that guy, and it didn’t matter what Alfonso Soriano thought about him or how many home runs Soriano hit.

Jaramillo probably wouldn’t have been retained had he not been in the last year of a three-year deal that pays him $800,000 a year, and the Cubs’ problems scoring runs – the continuing problems of Ian Stewart and Geo Soto – probably sealed his fate a long time ago.

With the amateur draft and the Jorge Soler signing over, it was time to move on to the coaching staff. The Cubs announced Tuesday that they’re promoting 35-year-old James Rowson from minor-league hitting coordinator to big-league hitting coach.

He’ll be positioned to welcome first baseman Anthony Rizzo later this month and center fielder Brett Jackson at some point soon after that. He’ll also work with guys like Darwin Barney and Stewart, who seemed to have stalled in their development.

Rowson had impressed Theo Epstein & Co. with his work on prospects like Javier Baez and Rizzo. He's considered excellent in helping hitters improve their plate discipline and learn to "grind out'' at-bats, and benefited from working under Kevin Long with the Yankees.

Jaramillo, who was working for his third manager in three years, worked his rear end off to help Soriano and other Cub veterans but Epstein decided he wasn't what he wanted long term. It seems like a pretty simple transition.

Jaramillo came to the Cubs with Lou Piniella as the manager, carrying a stack of credentials from his work with the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros. He contributed to the immediate success Starlin Castro experienced in Chicago, adding Castro to a long list of talented young hitters he has helped, but otherwise has spun his wheels on a veteran team that never seemed to get better.